UN tells Lebanon to control south

The border remains tense despite Israel's withdrawal

The UN Security Council has told Lebanon that it must abide by international law and take control of the area in the south of the country which was vacated by Israel in May.

Hezbollah guerrillas - who spearheaded the resistance against Israeli occupation - moved into the area as Israeli troops and their Lebanese allies, the South Lebanon Army militia, withdrew.

Hezbollah spearheaded the Israeli resistance

Lebanon has refused to deploy its own troops in the area, saying it does not want to serve as Israel's border guard in the absence of a comprehensive peace treaty.

The Security Council has reminded Lebanon that the UN resolution calling for the Israeli withdrawal also required Lebanon to take full control of the area.

Violations

The council also called for an end to what it called the dangerous violations on the border with Israel.

Israel objects to the daily bouts of stone throwing by Lebanese and Palestinian tourists at the Fatima Gate - a former border crossing into Israel.

But the BBC's UN correspondent, Mark Devenport, says the Security Council had two specific incidents in mind - both of which took place on 7 October.

The first incident was the killing by Israeli troops of three Palestinian demonstrators who were part of a group that tried to cross the Israeli border fence.

The second was the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers by members of Hezbollah.

The soldiers were snatched from a disputed area known as the Shebaa farms, which Israel recently described as still being under a state of alert.

UN force

Lebanon is demanding from Israel the return of the farms in the foothills of the Golan Heights - but the UN disputes Lebanon's claim to the land.

Beirut's position is that while Israel is illegally occupying Lebanese land, Hezbollah is justified in continuing its campaign.

The UN has a presence in the south

Hezbollah controls the former occupation zone, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, and now numbering 5,400 is not deployed fully at the border, having waited for the Lebanese to deploy there first.

Council members say the force, which was authorised to expand to 8,000 troops, was more likely to be reduced than increased in the future.

The Lebanese security presence in the south is minimal, consisting of about 1,000 military police and internal security forces.

Israel has made clear that any attacks across the border would meet with a swift and powerful response.

The current president of the Security Council, Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, declined to say what the UN was prepared to do to persuade the Lebanese Government to move into the south.